A powerful tornado tore through the small town of Greenfield, Iowa, on Tuesday, leaving a trail of destruction and claiming multiple lives. The devastating storm obliterated homes, crumpled cars, and even twisted and toppled wind turbines in the area. Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Alex Dinkla confirmed that there had been fatalities but did not specify the number, stating, "Sadly we can confirm that there have been fatalities. We're still counting at this time."
The tornado, which struck Greenfield, a community of 2,000 located about 55 miles southwest of Des Moines, was part of a series of severe storms that battered the Midwest on Tuesday. The National Weather Service received 23 tornado reports, with most occurring in Iowa and one each in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The storms moved eastward, pummeling parts of Illinois and Wisconsin and knocking out power to tens of thousands of customers in the two states.
Greenfield's hospital was among the buildings damaged by the tornado, forcing at least a dozen injured people to be transported to facilities elsewhere for treatment. Authorities announced a mandatory curfew for the town and ordered media representatives to leave Tuesday night, allowing only residents to enter until Wednesday morning.
The aftermath of the storm revealed a scene of devastation, with mounds of broken wood from homes, branches, car parts, and other debris littering the lots where homes once stood. Some trees that remained standing were stripped of their limbs and leaves. Residents banded together to help each other salvage furniture and belongings strewn in every direction.
Rogue Paxton, a resident who sheltered in his basement during the storm, told WOI-TV that while his family got lucky, others were not as fortunate. "But everyone else is not so much, like my brother Cody, his house just got wiped," Paxton said. "Then you see all these people out here helping each other. ... Everything's going to be fine because we have each other, but it's just going to be really, really rough. It is a mess."
The tornado also apparently took down several 250-foot wind turbines in southwest Iowa, with some catching fire and sending plumes of smoke into the air. Despite being built to withstand powerful winds, tornadoes, and hurricanes, the wind farms were not spared from the storm's wrath.
Mary Long, the owner of Long's Market in downtown Greenfield, rode out the storm at her business in the community's historic town square, which largely escaped damage. She described the sound of the tornado as a "proverbial freight train" and noted that there appeared to be widespread damage on the east and south sides of town.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds announced plans to visit Greenfield on Wednesday morning, expressing her disbelief that tornadoes had hit several Iowa communities just weeks after a previous round of severe weather. "Iowans are strong and resilient, and we will get through this together," she said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, residents in Omaha, Nebraska, awoke to sirens blaring and widespread power outages as torrential rain, high winds, and large hail pummeled the area, flooding basements and submerging cars. In Illinois, dust storms led authorities to shut down stretches of two interstates due to low visibility.
The severe weather is expected to move away from the Midwest and toward the Southern Plains and Mississippi Valley on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. Large hail, wind damage, and tornadoes are likely across Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. The storms follow days of extreme weather that have ravaged much of the middle section of the country, including strong winds, large hail, and tornadoes in Oklahoma and Kansas, as well as deadly storms in the Houston area last week that claimed at least eight lives.
